I'm surprised the rear engine in the 337 didn't overheat in the Mexican desert when the electric cowl flaps failed closed...

They downplayed the NASA experiment and the assumption here was no fire - which most likely would have erupted in a real crash. Aside from blunt force trauma most fatalities are fire related - burns and inhalation.

You can get the impact data on a human being in a lab without crashing an airliner.

 

Another ridiculous observation was the cargo hold. One of the guys says that the cargo hold was empty and if it had been full of luggage then surely the bags would have distorted the floor and injured many passengers. THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU FILL THE CARGO BAY WITH BAGS????

All in all it seemed like a huge waste of time, effort and money.

Oh, and one more thing. The said they used a 727 because it most closely approximated the 737, the most common air transport in use today. Oh really? I wonder how much more damage/fire etc would happen when the engines of a 737 slammed in the dirt and ripped off. Close approximation indeed.

 

after reading the comments here, I just deleted it. From what I've read they had money and time issues to get it done. They only paid 450K for the 727 and the Mexican govt gave them a deadline.

I'm sure it'll be on youtube or discovery.com at some piont - if it's not already.

 

Anchorage Daily News - Google News Archive Search

Jim Slocum, the captain on this little stunt, is a famous name in the Smoke Jumper World. This not the first airplane Jim has "abandoned" in flight.

 

UAL T-38 Phyler,

spot on observation concerning the missed landing area and the small berm which caused to nose to buckle and break off. I thought the same thing too, but couldn't rewind the show to watch it over again. Also I missed the first 15 minutes of the show, did they intend to land nose-wheel first? if not, then they really did screw it up.

 

I think they intended to slam it into the ground at 2000fpm, which they did decently well. An airplane with a fuselage like that is going to buckle at some point most likely. It's pretty common with crashes (I study them). What was good was that it was strong enough near the wings to remain intact, and it "broke off" so far forward, leaving most of it intact.


Is the the best and most optimal crash recreation ever? No, probably not. Is it a good use of an airplane that will never fly again and pretty interesting? Yep. I think this should be done with more of those boneyard planes.

 

Hoss:

I tried to page-forward through the newspaper archive to read the rest of the article on Slocum, which was dated 1981. Around page 4 or 5 I found this headline:

"Europe Spurs Peace Initiative in Afghanistan."

I wonder how that worked out?

 

Long story short..

After the load masters jumped, Slocum went back and jettisoned/secured everything he could. Ed Dugan continued to fly the airplane and ordered Slocum to jump. They were unable to feather the engine and they were unable to start the jet pack on the roof as the fuel supply to the jet came off the engine that was on fire. By this time the fire was so severe that the tail boom was starting to separate on the fire side.

Jim Slocum got out at about 300' AGL. One of the load masters told me that he watched Jim jump and that his chute had barely inflated and he got about a half swing before he hit the ground. Ed had tried to tie off the yoke and depart the aircraft several times but even with full rudder trim and the yoke tied over every time he let go of the controls the airplane started to roll over.

Ed was able to land gear up on a sand bar in a river and survived with no or minor injuries.

I did not know Jim or Ed but I knew and worked with all three jumpers who were working as load masters that day. I remember Tony Pasco telling me that he knew it was time to jump when all the windows on the burning side melted out and the fire started coming inside the fuselage.

And that is the very shortened story of the infamous Ak Smokejumper C-119 in slow flight.

The river was either the Kuskokwim or the koukuk. I will find out. The airplane was owned and operated by Hawkins and Powers out of Greybull Wyoming.

Here is the whole story as told by the captain Ed Dugan

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/c119-dugan_story.htm